


All In, All the Time

by keerawa



Category: Battleship (2012)
Genre: Alien Invasion, Gen, Intrigue, Military, Post-Canon, U.S. Navy SEALs, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 04:35:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17135051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keerawa/pseuds/keerawa
Summary: Save the world one time, and they expect you to make a career out of it.





	All In, All the Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [omphale23](https://archiveofourown.org/users/omphale23/gifts).



The Black Hawk arrowed north-east over the empty ocean, her low radar profile blades beating loud and monotonous against the night fog.  They were EMCON ALPHA 1, running dark, navigating on GPS, forward-looking infrared, and gut instinct.  Hopper adjusted his headset and checked in with the pilot.  In fifteen minutes they’d be Bingo Fuel, which by all sane military doctrine meant they should turn back now.  Hopper’s orders were to proceed to the rendezvous coordinates, and then set up a search pattern until they either found the JS Kaga, or ditched into the East China Sea.  Hopper hoped Nagata’s summer camp had included lessons in navigation, as well as marksmanship.

 

* * *

 

Nagata stood on the foredeck of his destroyer, head tilted, listening to the sound of the waves against the hull.  Two Japanese sailing ships, racing through this area, had spotted what appeared to be an alien spaceship.  When they turned on their radios to report what they had seen, it disappeared beneath the waves.  This odd, unconfirmed report would have been of no particular import, except that a piece of the fifth alien device had splashed down in this area years ago, before the rest crashed into Hong Kong.  It had never been recovered. For the past week, the navies of seven nations had combed the region, searching with radar, sonar, and lidar, surface vessels, submarines, and satellites, with no results.

Now this patch of ocean was empty, except for his stealth destroyer and a single modified UH-60 Black Hawk, out there somewhere in the dark.  Once they heard it, and only then, they could use an infrared signaling lamp to guide the helicopter in for a landing.  If the aliens had grown cunning enough to hide from human technology, only total signal discipline would allow Hopper’s team to find them.

 

* * *

 

Hopper checked in with Chief Rodrìguez and the other men — sailors, he mentally corrected himself, before Raikes did it for him.  It had taken him two attempts to make it through BUD/S in Coronado, and when he did he found her waiting for him, already qualified and sitting on the bench, waiting for a place on his SEAL team. Other SEAL teams were used around the world for intel gathering, demolitions, anti-terrorism, and other covert ops.  His team specialized in what Admiral Jacobs called, ‘that wu-wu alien shit’. They investigated credible reported sightings and incidents.  It was mostly false alarms, but they’d found some tech, a few with enough AI to be a threat, and even a small group of aliens holed-up in Oahu.

This was the first time Hopper could remember hoping that the reported alien contact was real.  If it was out there, his team could find it, and kill it. If not, with no way to prove a negative, the Chinese would carry through on their threat to blanket the area with depth-charge nukes.  Given the currents in the area, that would be bad for the Chinese coast and the Philippines, and devastating for Japan.  They’d already been nuked once —twice— in the past century; hardly seemed fair for them to go through it again. 

The world was still reacting to the sudden alien invasion, fear paradoxically increasing and turning to paranoia as no further incursions were reported. If WMD’s became an accepted response to suspected alien encounters, the human race would wipe itself off the planet within a decade.

 

* * *

 

One of Nagata’s men heard it first, the dull thwap of a helicopter approaching from the east. They beamed the infrared lantern in that direction, and within a minute the Black Hawk landed on his deck with a dull crunch.  His crew scurried forward under the blades, wearing their night-vision goggles, to secure it and assist the pilot.  The poor man was pale, his hair damp with sweat when he took off his helmet.  Landing on a boat as small as the Kaja was difficult, even in ideal circumstances.  Nagata hoped the pilot was receiving combat pay.

Nagata watched as Hopper appeared in the door of the helicopter.  “Permission to come aboard?” Hopper requested.

“Granted,” Nagata said formally.  When Hopper hopped down and approached, he greeted him properly, grasping him by the shoulders and giving him a gentle shake to share his true pleasure and relief at Hopper’s safe arrival. “Lieutenant-Commander Hopper, you are late,” he said.

“Well, Captain, you know how it is,” Hopper responded with a grin. “We turned left at the seagull, instead of right.  Have you got that submersible ready to go?”

Nagata nodded.  “If you will direct your men to stow your equipment, I can brief you with the latest intelligence.”

Hopper raised his voice.  “Chief, take Mohammed and Kama to prep the sub.  Smith, review the signals we planned out with the Kaja’s comms officer — he speaks English, right?” he asked, suddenly directing his attention to Nagata.

“He does, yes,” Nagata confirmed.

“Good.  Raikes, with me!  Do you remember Raikes, from the John Paul Jones?”

“I remember her using a 5-inch ship’s cannon to blow up an alien, yes,” Nagata said, leading them to the briefing room.

“Glad to hear I made an impression,” she said.

Nagata spent fifteen minutes going through the latest intelligence reports in detail; a long list of tests, all with negative results.  He used the time to observe Hopper and Raikes, and to consider how to broach a most delicate subject.

“So, we don’t know shit, and if there’s an alien ship down there, we have zero evidence of it.  That about sum it up?” Hopper said, leaning back precariously in his chair.

“That is correct,” Nagata said, restraining the urge to snap at him to sit up straight. “I must ask, if your team fails to find the alien vessel —”

“You can stop right there,” Hopper said, rudely interrupting him.  “You don’t need to worry about that.  I am 100% certain that my team will find that alien vessel, no matter where it’s hiding, and kick its ass.  Isn’t that right, Raikes?”

“Yes, sir,” she agreed.  With a quiet grunt of effort, she picked her duffel bag up off the deck and dropped it on the table, knocking a half-dozen reports off it to land in a shower of paper.  “We’ve been all over the planet, and encountered every type of alien tech there is,” she said, opening the bag to reveal a variety of alien technology, including deck plating, circuit boards, armor, even carefully preserved biological samples. Highly illegal, of course, but all ‘souvenirs’ one might gather in the aftermath of a battle with alien forces. “We’re the best in the world, at what we do,” she said seriously, staring at Nagata.

“I mean, we’re the only ones in the world who do what we do, so that’s not a high bar to clear,” Hopper said.  Oddly, he wasn’t looking at Nagata as he said it, but rather glancing randomly around the room, at the light fixtures, the air vents, and the computer.  All the places one might find audio surveillance equipment.  Ah.

“I see,” Nagata said quietly. He realized that the Lieutenant-Commander had just reminded him that Hopper’s own team had been the one writing all the reports that would be used to evaluate any evidence they brought back of an encounter with an alien vessel. Whether that encounter had truly occurred, or not. 

“In that case, it will be my honor to assist you and your team in your mission,” Nagata said, standing and bowing to the man who had just informed Nagata of his intent to save Japan by any means necessary, whether it be through honest battle or deception.

“I knew we could count on you,” Hopper said cheerfully, getting to his feet.  “C’mon, Raikes.  Me and my team need some rack time, if we’re gonna launch that mini-sub at dawn.”

“My XO has your berthing assignments,” Nagata said.  “Let him know if you need anything.”

Hopper nodded and turned to leave.

Nagata held out a hand to him.  Hopper took his hand and squeezed it in a brief, firm handshake. “Good hunting,” Nagata wished him, whatever form that hunt might take. 

Hopper squeezed past him and walked out, leaving him and SO Raikes in the tiny briefing room.  “Don’t worry, he lives for this shit,” she informed him, briskly zipping the duffle bag shut, hefting it onto her shoulder, and then hurrying down the passageway after her commanding officer.

Nagata busied himself by tidying up the room while he made contingency plans, not allowing himself to search for Chinese surveillance devices. He considered what he could and could not say to his own men, in case Hopper’s suspicions were correct.  Other forms of infiltration were not out of the question.  Lieutenant Yamamoto, the Kaja’s new comms officer, was the obvious choice for this mission, given his fluency in English and expertise decoding the alien signals they had analyzed since the invasion. And yet the man owed him no personal loyalty and would have many opportunities to report back to outside authorities, in Japan or China.  Nagata must simply remind his crew that the SEAL team was to be given all possible support, no questions asked.  They were here to save Japan — from the aliens, of course. 

Nagata suspected that his own glowing report of Hopper’s heroism and professionalism in the face of overwhelming odds had been one of the factors in earning the man his promotion, Silver Star, and place in the SEAL teams. He could do no less now, and began composing a truly exquisite after-action report.  If he could not support Hopper’s team in the waters below, he would provide whatever back-up he could from the surface.

**Author's Note:**

> "All in, all the time," is a well-known saying on SEAL teams.  
> Hopper was canonically recruited to join the Navy SEALs in the last minute of the movie.  
> There are currently no women serving in the SEALs, but the regulations were changed to make them eligible in 2016, and the Navy has been actively recruiting experienced female sailors with specialized skills. I think Raikes would make one hell of a SEAL.
> 
> Thanks to Stevie for the encouragement and original brainstorm, and to Morbane for the 12th-hour beta!


End file.
